About

£16,702

pledged of £15,000 goal

622

backers

The Pioneers Program is a post-apocalyptic, town building board game for 3-6 players. At its core it is a fun and easy to learn game featuring great art by the Mico and offering incredible value at just £20 (Under $26!).

You have been chosen by the Arc to lead a new town and rebuild humanity. Plan, build, venture into the wastes or complete research on your harsh new world. Actions are limited and you need to choose wisely how to spend them. Each round players recruit a new survivor to support them, each brings their own strengths and selecting carefully is important. As is gaining turn order to allow you to choose your survivor first and make actions sooner rather than later.

Grow too quickly and you may face unwanted attention from the wastes. Balancing the size of your town with food production and defensive capabilities is essential and made all the more difficult by hordes of Viralz, the newly evolved race of Ascendants or even a raid from a fellow Pioneer.

Four possible actions make the game simple to learn and yet limited resources and an aggressive environment require players to think ahead and plan for the best way to use the actions they have.

Market: Buy cards from the market, the longer they stay in play the cheaper they get, but wait and someone may get in there before you!

Wastes: Send a team to scavenge in the wastes, find a range of useful items or encounter stragglers and convince them to join your cause. You may even trigger events that can have wide ranging and disruptive effects.

Plan: Whilst not as glamorous as other actions, taking the time to plan allows you to respond to the challenges the world can throw at you.

Research: You can undertake the Arc's research projects, allowing you to gain favour with the Arc and reap the benefits as well.

Each game round has three steps:

Step 1 sees players make actions and play cards.

Step 2 the towns generate their production and pay any maintenance costs, discarding what they can't afford the upkeep of.

Step 3 players resolve turn order and choose a new survivor for the next round.

Turn order is essential in The Pioneers Program, the survivor you pick each round will give you asymmetric strengths and leadership scores. Allowing you to do things your opponents can't this round but also determining the turn order and who will get to strike first.

Deputy Smith and the RV card are both Kickstarter edition exclusive cards. More Kickstarter exclusive cards will be unlocked as the campaign progresses, the Mayor is the next exclusive card, he will be unlocked when we get 100 signed up to our Thunderclap HERE. Be sure to get these unique images by the Mico while you can.

By joining together to launch the Thunderclap we have unlocked the KS exclusive 'Mayor'. Now lets get the Pickling Shed unlocked for all backers:

Don't just take our word that the game is fun and easy, have a look for yourself and check out the rules, if for nothing else than to delight in some of the amazing art by the Mico. If you want to jump straight in, we're sure you'll love the game, download the PnP file and get playing now. We've also included a how to play video below for those that like to see rules explained.

The rules and cards have been translated into French and German and will be presented here shortly. The rules are also currently being translated into Italian.

Read the rules, watched the 'How to Play' now have a go at the game on Tabletopia HERE.

We were delighted to get the opportunity to work with one of the rising stars of board game illustration, The Mico. He has worked on some great titles already and has brought that knowledge and expertise to help bring the game to life with his ideas and unique style.

We have once again joined forces with Thorn Graphic Design to ensure that all the elements of the Pioneers Program have been brought together to make the game as intuitive and accessible as possible whilst complementing the vast array of art.

Shipping will be customs friendly for Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. We have had to limit the areas we can ship to based upon experience from previous Kickstarters. We apologise to those backers that have fallen outside of these viable shipping areas.

Show Pick Up

This option is for backers that are able to attend and pick up their pledge reward from our stand at the following shows in 2017:

Salute 2017

UK Games Expo 2017

Gen Con 2017

Spiele (Essen) 2017

(Someone else can pick up your pledge on your behalf as long as we receive prior notice and they have ID to prove they are the person you have informed us about)

When we hit our funding goal we will unlock stretch goals that will help to make the game even better, from component upgrades to new cards. Nothing will cost you extra, i.e. there will be no 'Add ons', if we unlock it and you have backed to receive the game then you will receive it.

Many more to come, so help us spread the word and together we'll break through these locks!

Risks and challenges

We have been successfully producing games for over 5 years now and have worked on games that offer much more complex manufacturing challenges than The Pioneers Program offers. We have done as much of the work as possible before launching the Kickstarter and once completed we are confident we can produce and deliver the game on time and to the highest standards as expected of a GCT Studios product.

There is however always the possibility of hiccups when dealing with overseas manufacturers. We are as prepared as possible for these and have experience from our successfully funded and delivered Kickstarter for Rise of the Kage.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £300 or more
About $391

You... in the game! (Wastes)

The base £20 pledge plus...
You will be a personality that has somehow survived the wastes!

Our artist 'The Mico' will paint you as a Personality based on a photo you provide. You will become a Personality card for the wastes deck, immortalised and included in every copy of The Pioneers Program.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £300 or more
About $391

You... in the game! (Arc)

The base £20 pledge plus...
You will be a personality that has finally emerged from the Arc!

Our artist 'The Mico' will paint you as a Personality based on a photo you provide. You will become a Personality card for the market deck, immortalised and included in every copy of The Pioneers Program.